Boronia tetragona

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Boronia tetragona
Boronia tetragona.jpg
Status DECF P3.svg
Priority Three — Poorly Known Taxa (DEC)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Boronia
Species:
B. tetragona
Binomial name
Boronia tetragona

Boronia tetragona is a species of plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is endemic to a small area of the southwest of Western Australia. It is an erect, glabrous, perennial herb with simple, sessile leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers.

Contents

Description

Boronia tetragona is an erect, glabrous, perennial herb that grows to a height of 70 cm (28 in). Its stems are more or less square in cross-section with a smooth, sharp rib on each corner. The leaves are sessile, elliptic to egg-shaped or triangular, up to 40 mm (1.6 in) long and have warty edges. The flowers are borne in umbels on the ends of the branches on a thin peduncle up to 20 mm (0.79 in) long, the individual flowers on a thin pedicel up to 10 mm (0.39 in) long. There are smooth, dark red bracts at the base of the flowers. The four sepals are dark red and about 3 mm (0.12 in) long. The four petals are pink with a darker midline, egg-shaped and about 7 mm (0.3 in) long with a rounded tip. The eight stamens have warty glands near the tip. Flowering occurs from October to December. [2] [3] [4]

Taxonomy and naming

Boronia tetragona was first formally described in 1998 by Paul Wilson and the description was published in Nuytsia from a specimen collected by Gregory John Keighery near Busselton. [5] [2] Wilson derived the specific epithet (tetragona) from the Greek words tetra meaning "four" and gona meaning "angle", referring to the four-sided branches. [2] Other sources give tessares (τέσσαρες) and gōnia (γωνία) as the Greek words for "four" and "angle". [6]

Distribution and habitat

This boronia grows in open woodland sometimes with sedges, between Capel and the Whicher Range in the Jarrah Forest and Swan Coastal Plain biogeographic regions. [2] [3]

Conservation

Boronia tetragona is classified as "Priority Three" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife, [3] meaning that it is poorly known and known from only a few locations but is not under imminent threat. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>Boronia crenulata</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia crenulata, commonly known as aniseed boronia, is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an open-branched shrub, often trailing between other plants, has strap-like leaves and pink to purple-red, four-petalled flowers in winter and autumn.

<i>Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus baeckeaceus is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia. It is a slender or straggling shrub with simple or trifoliate leaves and pink and white four-petalled flowers. It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia.

<i>Cyanothamnus coerulescens</i> Species of plant

Cyanothamnus coerulescens, commonly known as blue boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to southern Australia. It is a small, spindly shrub with glandular stems, small, more or less cylindrical leaves and blue to pinkish mauve, four-petalled flowers. There are two subspecies endemic to Western Australia and a third that also occurs in three eastern states.

Cyanothamnus acanthocladus is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low, prickly shrub with small leaves and white, four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia anceps</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia anceps is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a perennial herb with small leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers.

Boronia coriacea is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small shrub with pinnate leaves and hairless pink, four-petalled flowers in small clusters on the ends of the branches.

<i>Cyanothamnus bussellianus</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus bussellianus is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender perennial herb or shrub with well-spaced, simple leaves and pink, blue or white, four-petalled flowers.

<i>Boronia dichotoma</i> Species of plant

Boronia dichotoma is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, slender perennial herb or shrub with simple leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers. The species is characterised by sticky glandular hairs on the pedicels.

Boronia exilis is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender, erect perennial with well-spaced, simple, more or less cylindrical leaves and pink, four-petalled flowers in groups of between three and nine on the ends of the branches.

<i>Boronia filicifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia filicifolia is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the far north-west of Australia. It is an erect or sprawling shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves with up to 55 leaflets and white to pink flowers with the sepals a similar length to the petals.

<i>Boronia humifusa</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia humifusa is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low-growing, mostly hairless, wiry perennial with four-angled branches, simple, flat leaves and pink or red, four-petalled flowers in groups on the ends of the branches.

Boronia interrex, commonly known as the Regent River boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect, sometimes low-lying shrub with pinnate leaves, cream-coloured to pale pink sepals and pink petals, the sepals longer and wider than the petals.

Boronia minutipinna is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, hairy stems and leaves, pinnate leaves and white to pink, four-petalled flowers with the sepals longer and wider than the petals.

<i>Boronia nematophylla</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia nematophylla is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a shrub with thin, simple leaves and pale red to purple, four-petalled flowers arranged singly or in small groups in leaf axils.

<i>Boronia stricta</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia stricta is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to near-coastal areas of the south-west of Western Australia. It is a slender shrub with often crowded pinnate leaves with linear leaflets, and pink, four-petalled flowers borne singly or in groups of two or three in leaf axils.

<i>Cyanothamnus tenuis</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus tenuis, commonly known as blue boronia, is a species of plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae, and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is a slender shrub with thread-like, sessile leaves, and flowers with four petals that are white to pink on the front and pale blue on the back.

Boronia thedae, commonly known as the Theda boronia, is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub when young, later a prostrate shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves, four white to cream-coloured or pale pink sepals and four similarly coloured petals, the sepals longer and wider than the petals.

<i>Boronia tolerans</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia tolerans is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Northern Territory in Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, pinnate leaves and white, four-petalled flowers. It is only known from Nitmiluk National Park.

<i>Boronia virgata</i> Species of flowering plant

Boronia virgata is a plant in the citrus family, Rutaceae and is endemic to the south coast of Western Australia. It is a virgate shrub with pinnate leaves with between three and five leaflets, and flowers with red sepals and deep pink, egg-shaped petals.

<i>Cyanothamnus westringioides</i> Species of flowering plant

Cyanothamnus westringioides is a species of erect shrub that is endemic to a small area in the southwest of Western Australia. It has simple, narrow, sessile leaves and pale pink flowers arranged singly in leaf axils.

References

  1. "Boronia tetragona". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Wilson, Paul G. (1998). "New names and new taxa in the genus Boronia (Rutaceae) from Western Australia, with notes on seed characters". Nuytsia. 12 (1): 140–141. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 "Boronia tetragona". FloraBase . Western Australian Government Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.
  4. Duretto, Marco F.; Wilson, Paul G.; Ladiges, Pauline Y. "Boronia tetragona". Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  5. "Boronia tetragona". APNI. Retrieved 9 May 2019.
  6. Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of Roderick McKenzie.Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  7. "Conservation codes for Western Australian Flora and Fauna" (PDF). Government of Western Australia Department of Parks and Wildlife. Retrieved 9 May 2019.